# Spaciousness Day 4 > Come to Stillness: Take a few minutes to allow your mind and heart to be still before God. ### Opening Prayer: *Teach me, God to make room for you in all the events and affairs of my days. Then I shall find rest. Then I will be at peace with myself and with you. (Norman Shawchuck in A Guide To Prayer for All Who Seek God)* #### Psalm for the Week: Psalm 18:30-50 *30 This God—his way is perfect;[a] the word of the Lord proves true; he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him.31 For who is God, but the Lord? And who is a rock, except our God?— 32 the God who equipped me with strength and made my way blameless. 33 He made my feet like the feet of a deer and set me secure on the heights.34 He trains my hands for war, so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.35 You have given me the shield of your salvation, and your right hand supported me, and your gentleness made me great.* *36 You gave a wide place for my steps under me, and my feet did not slip.37 I pursued my enemies and overtook them,and did not turn back till they were consumed.38 I thrust them through, so that they were not able to rise;they fell under my feet.39 For you equipped me with strength for the battle;you made those who rise against me sink under me.40 You made my enemies turn their backs to me,[b]and those who hated me I destroyed.41 They cried for help, but there was none to save; they cried to the Lord, but he did not answer them.* *42 I beat them fine as dust before the wind;I cast them out like the mire of the streets.43 You delivered me from strife with the people; you made me the head of the nations; people whom I had not known served me.44 As soon as they heard of me they obeyed me; foreigners came cringing to me.45 Foreigners lost heart and came trembling out of their fortresses.46 The Lord lives, and blessed be my rock, and exalted be the God of my salvation—47 the God who gave me vengeance and subdued peoples under me,48 who delivered me from my enemies;yes, you exalted me above those who rose against me;you rescued me from the man of violence.49 For this I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations,and sing to your name.50 Great salvation he brings to his king,and shows steadfast love to his anointed,to David and his offspring forever.* #### Scripture for the Day: Deuteronomy 11:8-32 *8 “You shall therefore keep the whole commandment that I command you today, that you may be strong, and go in and take possession of the land that you are going over to possess, 9 and that you may live long in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give to them and to their offspring, a land flowing with milk and honey. 10 For the land that you are entering to take possession of it is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and irrigated it,[a] like a garden of vegetables. 11 But the land that you are going over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water by the rain from heaven, 12 a land that the Lord your God cares for. The eyes of the Lord your God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.* *13 “And if you will indeed obey my commandments that I command you today, to love the Lord your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, 14 he[b] will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the later rain, that you may gather in your grain and your wine and your oil. 15 And he will give grass in your fields for your livestock, and you shall eat and be full. 16 Take care lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them; 17 then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and he will shut up the heavens, so that there will be no rain, and the land will yield no fruit, and you will perish quickly off the good land that the Lord is giving you.* *18 “You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 19 You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 20 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, 21 that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, as long as the heavens are above the earth. 22 For if you will be careful to do all this commandment that I command you to do, loving the Lord your God, walking in all his ways, and holding fast to him, 23 then the Lord will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and mightier than you. 24 Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours. Your territory shall be from the wilderness to[c] the Lebanon and from the River, the river Euphrates, to the western sea. 25 No one shall be able to stand against you. The Lord your God will lay the fear of you and the dread of you on all the land that you shall tread, as he promised you.* *26 “See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: 27 the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, 28 and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way that I am commanding you today, to go after other gods that you have not known. 29 And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, you shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. 30 Are they not beyond the Jordan, west of the road, toward the going down of the sun, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah, opposite Gilgal, beside the oak[d] of Moreh? 31 For you are to cross over the Jordan to go in to take possession of the land that the Lord your God is giving you. And when you possess it and live in it, 32 you shall be careful to do all the statutes and the rules that I am setting before you today.* #### Reading for Reflection: *In biblical Hebrew, the letters yodh and shin combine to form a root that connotes “space and the freedom and security which is gained by the removal of constriction.” From this YS root come words like yesha and yeshuah, referring to salvation. When you think about it, it makes sense that space would be intimately associated with salvation. Space is freedom: freedom from confinement, from preoccupation, from oppression, from drivenness, and from all the other interior and exterior forces that bind and restrict our spirits. We need space in the first place simply to recognize how compelled and bound we are. Then we need space to allow the compulsions to ease and the bonds to loosen. In the Hebrew sense, our passion needs elbowroom. To the extent that space is permitted by grace and our own willingness, we discover expanding emptiness in which consecration can happen, room for love to make its home in us. (The Awakened Heart by Gerald G. May)* #### Reflection and Listening: silent and written #### Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself #### Song for the Week: How Deep the Father’s Love for Us *How deep the Father's love for us* *How vast beyond all measure* *That He would give His only Son* *To make a wretch His treasure* *How great the pain of searing loss* *The Father turns His face away* *As wounds which mar the chosen One* *Bring many sons to glory* *Behold the Man upon a cross* *My guilt upon His shoulders* *Ashamed, I hear my mocking voice* *Call out among the scoffers* *It was my sin that held Him there* *Until it was accomplished* *His dying breath has brought me life* *I know that it is finished* *I will not boast in anything* *No gifts, no power, no wisdom* *But I will boast in Jesus Christ* *His death and resurrection* *Why should I gain from His reward?* *I cannot give an answer* *But this I know with all my heart* *His wounds have paid my ransom* ### Closing Prayer: *O Lord, the house of my soul is too small for you to enter: make it more spacious by your coming.*